Westchester County Highpoint Trip Report
BM Bailey (980+ ft)
Date: March 16, 2006
Authors: Sue Ann Miller and Frank Price
In March, the gate across Mountain Road at Hawley Road is open for entrance to
Mountain Lakes Park but a sign says it will be locked at 4 pm and another gate
just beyond the camp buildings remains locked. This was a side trip on our way
to NYC and it was after 3 pm, so we decided to avoid a potential lock-in and
headed for the freedom of an approach from CT. The sun was out but the ticks
were not (yet).
Previous directions to find Sleepy Hollow Road by taking Barracks Hill Road off
CT 116 worked well coming north up 116 from Ridgefield-Titicus. Going to 116
instead of trying to traverse the maze of roads on that developing slope
probably saves time. There is room to park in front of the cable across the
road at the state line. From there it is an easy walk on an old rock road to
the HP. This is the same road that approaches from the park entrance.
Only one orange witness stake quivered in the strong breeze this day at the
highest ground and there was no evidence of the rock that held the BM or any
painted site. A sandy area at the stake might have covered the evidence or been
evidence of removal but we did not excavate. We kicked some leaves and walked
around on use paths to several nearby but clearly lower bumps to be sure but all
we found was a Columbia University earthquake-monitoring site (complete with
antenna) on obviously lower bedrock at the eastern edge of the rise where it
drops off toward the curve in the old road. With the leaves not yet out we
could further confirm by viewing the arrangement of nearby roads and finding
other nearby state line markers was easy.
We recommend an approach from the (north) east via CT for any CoHPers who would
like to avoid the crowds that would be in those large camp buildings along the
approach in season through the park in NY. It is easy to visit the Westchester
and Fairfield CoHPs in the same afternoon.